


Disguised hues

by IsaSlashLaps_sp



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: AU, F/M, Fluff, LadyNoir - Freeform, Slice of Life, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, What-If, how to tag?, my first ever fic, what to tag?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:14:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22440103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IsaSlashLaps_sp/pseuds/IsaSlashLaps_sp
Summary: In an alternative universe, the miraculous actually do a good job of hiding it's user's identities: whoever looks at them sees whatever it is that they find most appealing.Even other miraculous user fall under the magic, but if their use of the miraculous is proper, and for long enough, they can start seing glimpses of true appearence, and how can her eyes get bluer every time he looks at her?
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21





	1. How the world sees us

**Author's Note:**

> Note: in this AU, there's no love square! Only Ladynoir happen, but LB represses the hell out of her feeling subconsciously.

It has only been a couple of weeks since Ladybug and Chat Noir showed up to take care of Stoneheart and Hawkmoth, but it is hard not to notice that no one seemed to agree as to what they look like. 

Some say that the girl has hair as fiery red as her outfit, her ponytail blending in with the long scarf she wears, some say her outfit is more yellow-orange than red, and what was that about a scarf? I only see a big spotted overcoat? what about her eyes? Are they deep swamp green, or soft caramel brown? 

At least for the boy almost everyone agrees he is wearing leather... but is it a white jacket? A leather corset? A cape? Is it a cow patterned leather vest, paired with a cool black leather cowboy hat? Some even say he is wearing crocodile leather boots! His eyes are always mentioned to be green though; even those who have claimed to see blue eyes at first changed their minds to the green. though no one agrees to which hue of said green. Also, is he a calico cat? Some say he is a tabby. There is the occasional black cat, but those were rare.

Marinette is just a tiny-little bit disappointed no one sees the beautiful outfit Tikki made for her. A skin tight suit, her torso being black,with her shoulders in a silver with wing patterns embroided into the suit, with a tiny chain and jewel joining them at the base of the neck. Her waist, adorned with silver plates resembling armor, which repeated again on the shins leading to the black feet.  
Marinette sketched her own outfit down on a sketchbook while everyone in class did the same on their own notebooks. It is still the very start of the morning, and just like everyday since last week, the class discussed about the appearances of the new heroes; today they finally decided to draw their visions down and maybe coming to a conclusion. To be honest, most of what they described wasn't really close to what Ladybug's costume was actually like, but oh well, at least her identity was safely hidden. Only Adrien seemed to get close to what kind of blue her hero-self's eyes were. He actually even used Marinette herself as an example at one point, he said "Ladybug's eyes are just like Marinette's! Though they are a bit paler and icy." And well to say Marinette blushed as red as Ladybug's costume would cause a lot of disagreement.

As Miss. Bustier called in sick last minute, they had the whole first class to show off their versions of the heroes. Rose finished up first and standing in front of the teacher's desk, she held her drawing for everyone to see:  
"Ladybug has long straight dark hair, with one stripe that goes from red to white. And she wears earrings that go up over her head, sort of like antennas!" She continued to describe what was basically a mix of Juleka, a polkadot themed ballerina and a Sailor Scouts uniform.  
Next up was Alya, who was also by far the most focused on nailing down what the heroes looked like, though she favoured her own look for Ladybug:  
"When I look at Ladybug, I see she is wearing a orange suit-" Kim interrupted Alya.  
"Aren't ladybugs red? Just ladybugs in general, they are red right?" Kim looked at Max, who answered calmly:  
"Ladybugs can be yellow and orange too, Kim."  
"Oh... Sorry to interrupt Alya!"  
Alya nodded quickly. "As I was saying. Orange suit, puffy cool brown hair, fading to a warm bright brown at the tips. she also clearly wears fingerless gloves that bell out. And duh, she has shoulder pads with a polka-dot pattern. That match the hairpin she has on her hair." Alya then all proud of herself went back to her seat, and Mylenne slowly walked up to the front. At the end of the class, they got back to the status quo, and not making any progress. Marinette found funny though that even though people complimented her on her own design, they mentioned how it definitely wasn't accurate so she silently laughed to herself about the irony.

Marinette decided to wait at her seat until the start of the next class, and to pass the time she decided to get a headstart on what Chat Noir looked like, as that was probably the next thing to be discussed in class.  
As Marinette was close to finishing, she noticed eyes watching her, and when she looked up, Adrien was there.  
"Hello, Marinette." He smiled, and Marinette could feel the blood rushing to her face, how couldn't she be used to having people watch her draw? "What are you doing? Is that your version of Chat Noir?" He hesitantly reached for the sketchbook and Marinette noded and he took it to his eyes.  
"Yep." Adrien raised an eyebrow. what he saw in the sketchbook was actually somewhat close to his suit: A full leather suit, with tiny bells at the handcuffs, the way she had drawn the suit seemed to remark the best of his features. And he simply loved the little ponytail, maybe he could let his hair grow a little? She apparently only had time to color the hair which was a dirty blond with a golden undertone. That was quite close to what his actual suit looked like, Adrien thought.  
"I love the design, Marinette. Though I don't think Chat's coolness matches with the fluffy collar, well it's better than the cowboy look they were pushing on Twitter yesterday."  
A small grin spread on his lips.  
"Oh yes, poor Chat Noir." Marinette threw her hands in the air, then smacked them gently on the table "I personally think it could be well used, but WOW, that guy really couldn't have a worse eye for country fashion." Marinette replied, taking the sketchbook from Adrien and storing it in her bag "Anyway, what class do you have up next again? We could walk there together, my next period is actually free."  
"I-umm, I have physics next period!" Taken back by the sudden question he looked away from her as she got up.  
"Great! Let's go, we don't want a mad Miss Mendeleev!" 

\------------------------------------------------

Now at home, Adrien threw himself onto his bed. Plaag flew directly to the little fridge where his camembert was.  
"Hey Plaag, would you mind explaining me how the miraculous hides our identities?" Adrien asked.  
"Again? I've explained it to you like... two times." he gulped down on a huge slice of cheese. "Okay. here we go for a third time: The miraculous are very safe on the hiding the identities thing. It will make whoever looks at you in your transformed state see what they most "desire". Basically their dream version, in terms of appearance. It generally helps with making people like you." He pointed at Adrien with the cheese in his hands... paws? arms?  
"It does transfer to photos, videos, and all that jazz. The only ones who can actually see the true appearances are those who have been in possession of a miraculous for a decent amount of time, but it slightly unveils details over time, so from the moment you put on your miraculous you can see some truth. But aside the outfit being red with spots, I don't know what else of what you see is true. I'd say that her eyes are really, actually blue. But who knows? only time will tell."  
"Oh! that was really helpful Plaag!" Adrien replied, with a smile.  
"I'm always really helpful, kid." Plaag responded, and gulped down on yet another huge piece of cheese.  
Adrien was excited to find out more about Ladybug. How many things could he be wrong about? Sure he'd still lo-... like, yes like, not love, her independently from what she actually looks like; there will always be a mask there anyway. Besides, it isn't like she knows how he looks either. For what it's known she could be seeing him in one of those crocodile leather boots that people have been mentioning. But Ladybug seems to have better taste than that. Marinette sertaily did, though she did not see Chat noir as handsomely cool as he is, his black leather suit was rather simple for the details got lost in the blackness, and when added in a cloak, pretty much everything but his eyes was hidden; but Marinette's take was a definitively very cute outfit, and he should think about that ponytail, his hair wasn't long enough for a decent ponytail yet, but he did have to get a haircut 3 times a month so it shouldn't take long, right? Just a matter of convincing Nathalie and his father, which shouldn't be too hard considering the current fashion.  
His thoughts wandered back to Ladybug. Did she have the beautiful smile he saw? Was she as fierce as he has known her? Plaag didn't mention the miraculous necessarily altering our personalities, so she was probably just that brave. Did she really have those piercing blue eyes? Plaag said he thought so, but how much of what he saw was her true self? Did his love for her come only because she looks exactly like his dream girl? He hopped not. Wait. Love? hummm... nope, not yet, that isn’t the right word. But it is close enough for now.  
Adrien crossed his arms behind his head, deciding to take a nap before he had to do anything his father had put in his schedule, he hummed the song he had heard someone sing that morning, and fell asleep.

\------------------------------------------------

"I wonder how is it that Adrien sees my Ladybug self. I mean he described it, but I have to confess his drawing wasn't the best" Marinette spoke out loud to Tikki as she unpacked her homework onto her desk.  
"I told you how the miraculous magic disguise works, so it would be a big gamble as to what he sees of you, it depends on his personal tastes, and since you didn't pay attention" she eyed the open sketchbook on Chat Noir's drawing " I can tell you he did get pretty close!" she flew to Marinette’s Shoulder.  
"He mentioned a spotted red and black outfit,short dark hair, and shoulder pads, just like Alya and Ivan. And he did mention the blue eyes, that by the way, if for some reason you don't remember, he mentioned are like yours."  
"Yeah, he was very on point! More than most of the class. But say, do you think my vision of Chat noir is close?” Marinette shifted her sketchbook so Tikki could see better.  
“To be honest with you Marinette, I can’t really tell you what is true or what isn’t, I can only guess, but I’d say you’re on the right track to seeing him as a cat at least, black also seems to be correct.”  
Marinette gave Tikki yet another unamused stare as Tikki rolled off the girl’s shoulder giggling “He calls himself Chat Noir. I don’t think he’d be a pink cat with that name.”

Continues...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short introduction, even shorter following chapters. This isn't a plot centric story, every chapter will be a slice of life kind of thing. I hope you enjoy!


	2. The enemies we most love

Akumas terrorized the city and Ladybug and Chat Noir defended the city. They became increasingly more famous each battle, rapidly becoming a new icon for Paris, and of course, in this world, like everything else people took an interest for, merchandise started showing up. There was no asking permission for the duo's consent for such merchandise as, at first it was purely ladybugs and cat themed pencils, towels, blankets, shirts, plush toys, and other random products, nothing directly "Ladybug and Chat Noir" themed; But when Action figures and dolls came into show, a tiny problem took rise. No brand of toys had the same design of doll. Which, yes, isn't necessarily bad, but, not a single doll looked like the other, and the public reaction to these releases wasn't any good either, just a handful of people said that design x and y resembled the heroes in some way, that z had absolutely nothing similar to the hero, but over all, it was like a war had started.

Back at our lovely class, the students laughed at the news of the upcoming "design war", they were much farther ahead, they have been at war since the very start. Marinette and Adrien each laughed to themselves independently, knowing only themselves actually knew of the true appearances of the heroes.  
Marinette kept sketching out the pattern for the next design for the next Ladybug doll she was about to make. After she customized a doll for herself, all her classmates had made it their mission to commission Marinette to customize a doll akin to each classmate's vision of the spotted hero, eventually Chat Noir would be done as well, of course.  
Suddenly all the windows shattered and as a sound wave shook everyone to the ground. Miss Bustier hurried up all the students outside of class while the waves only came stronger each time. Although the waves didn't have a particular loud noise it certainly had an impact, everyone had their ears covered, and in all the commotion Marinette managed to dodge Alya's grip and run somewhere she could transform.  
When Ladybug got to the street, she spotted Chat Noir with his hand over his cat ears, running. As he had just crossed the street, the pavement behind him came in ripping and flying everywhere, and more windows shattering by the minute, closely followed by a tiny figure flying on the air. "Oh boy, here we go" Ladybug said to herself as she ran in the figure's direction.

\------------------------------------------------  
"Pound it" the heroes fist bumped after they had deakumatized Hawkmoth's victim, and after a quick reassurance that the victim was well, they took off.  
"So Ladybug, where do you stand on the design war that has started?" Chat commented as the pair threw themselves in the air, enjoying the free time they had; very few were the times they had to use their powers and transform again, and since the second transformation did not call for a second turn of their powers, they didn't have exactly a time limit, so they were as free as they allowed themselves to be.  
"Don't get me started, kitty" Ladybug landed on the rooftop they had been using as a meeting point for patrols and occasional just hanging out moments "While I say there are people who are somewhat close, the vast majority is just SO far from the truth."  
"Would you mind telling me what is it then that I should be truly seeing M'Lady? I know it is far much better than what my poor little subconscious can think of." Chat Noir replied with his usual flirty tone.  
"If you really wanna know... I have beach blond hair tied up in a ponytail, food coloring blue eyes that ever so match my expensive baby blue makeup, as well as complimenting my gorgeous yellow ladybug costume that adorns my tanned sunkissed skin." The heroine announced in the best Chloe Bourgeois voice she could master complete with a hair flip at the end. To which Chat fell on his back from laughing, to which Ladybug joined in.

==================

Hawkmoth dropped to his his knees as his transformation also dropped.  
“Why, Nooroo? Why does she still looks so much like her?”  
Nooroo stared silently at Gabriel, he wouldn’t dare telling his master the misuse of his miraculous was the thing that prevented him from seeing Ladybug’s true appearance, well, at least not again.  
“She almost got badly hurt today” he paused “Why do I have to suffer this? couldn’t Adrien be the only thing to remind me of her? Why does my enemy have to be SO MUCH LIKE HER!” Gabriel growled as Nooroo looked out the iron framed window.

=============================================================


	3. Ladybug's new look

Adrien stared at the ceiling, it was a surprisingly quiet Sunday, not a single photoshoot, commercial, fitting test, Chinese test, piano recital, fencing competition, nothing was scheduled… Adrien giggled.   
“YES! FINALLY I HAVE SOME FREE TIME!” He turned on his belly breathing peacefully, there is so much he could do on his free time, but nothing was a particularly fun thing to do now that he had some of it. Adrien’s bangs poked his eyes, guess it was time to cut it.  
“OH!” Adrien rolled over to his side table and grabbed a hair band. Finally his hair was just long enough for a good ponytail. He opened his phone’s camera, yes Marinette was correct, a ponytail does suited him. Adrien grabbed more hair bands, and so enough there were about 7 ponytails all over his head. he looked at his phone again, yes, the ultimate look; He took a selfie and texeted it to Marinette.

[I think your suggestion relly fitted me]  
Adrien at 9:10

[Same]  
Marinette at 9:16

Attached was a picture of Marinette with an equally fitting amount of many ponytails.

[The look suits you. Should wear that more often!]  
Adrien at 9:17

Adrien smiled and rolled over on his bed grabbing a little notepad that rested on the nightstand along with the red pen attached to the wires, he taped it on his chin while pouting at the ceiling. Plaag finally woke up from his sleep and lazily floated over to Adrien's forehead.  
"So, what's today's update on 'Ladybug's new look'?" The little god asked curling in on himself preparing for another nap.  
"Just writing in yesterday's. But not much changed. I noticed her shoulders got some kind of embroidery on it!" He took the pen to the pad and scribbled down a shoulder with arabesques on it writing 'embroidered shoulder pad' on the side. "Her eyes also got bluer."  
"Kid, how can the girl's eyes get bluer every week when you've been saying her eyes were blue since day one?" Plagg said, still faking not paying attention to Adrien, rolling around.  
"Dunno. They just do." Adrien flipped to the start of the pad to review what he had learned so far. What has started as cold dark brown hair now dark blue shades mixed into it. The before puffy fabric of the suit slowly transitioning to a tight suit. The little details she had put on her outfit slowly appeared as well, the embroidered shoulders, the silver chain, the dark feet. And of course, her once piercing ice blue eyes got softer, warmer, more welcoming, every single week, day hour.


	4. Her eyes are blue

Adrien grew up surrounded by “beautiful people”. They weren’t necessarily beautiful on the inside, kind, generous, understanding, patient, but they were what could be considered pretty, or gorgeous by our standants, or at least the “Gabriel” brand deemed as good enough, and good enough meant near perfection; a perfection Adrien was born into and as such, had to act the part.

People might think that being surrounded by pretty people would be one of two things: One either a nightmare in which you know you are surrounded by people who definitely are better and more glorious that you’ll ever be, that your self esteem can never be too high for there is always someone who will look better; or that it is a sort of dream, in which everyone is pretty, and as such, you must be pretty yourself, because only a pretty would be allowed to be amongst the gorgeous, that you have a constant stream of beautiful people energy powering you to be one as well. For Adrien, it was neither.

Adrien knew he was handsome, or so he supposed he was, he was repeatedly told as much. Everyone he knew was a sort of beautiful. His father, from far away, exposed such a overpowering aura that you were compelled to find such display, beautiful, but you did not see the permanently stained disapproval stare. Nathalie, always working so hard, loyally and never ever stopping, a sort of beautiful cleaness, the same way you can admire the inner workings of a machine, with the cogs turning, inhuman, her eyes reflected that. Clhoé, though questionable in choosing makeup, was also beautiful, she could be pretty after a couple swatches of eyeshadow, and the power she could project could also be beautiful, but as you might have already guessed, had a absolutely rotten personality, but on the outside, she could be pretty.  
Pretty people won’t let you see the not pretty parts of themselves, in Adrien’s world, they are paid to not let that through. He could see through some of the cracks, anyone could if they looked hard enough, but whatever he could see was never enough.

Tabloids sell a version of love that can absolutely not be trusted, at all costs, not as a goal, nor as a reflection of the actual people represented in these tabloids, as often they are not actual people, more like characters on a soap opera. Being that, Adrien never knew what love was, Not parental love, he still had his father, he might be distant, cold, and not see him much, nothing like the movies showed parental love, but he had something. Not platonic friendship love, he truly did care for Clhoè, but for sure romantic love was the most flawed. He could know what he was supposed to find attractive, he was surrounded by pretty people, but personality wise, all was pretty fake. he couldn’t trust what he saw, he had learned to look enough and see the horrendous parts covered by pretty makeup. Appearances are deceiving. So he never felt anything like the movies described, never felt his mind liner on someone longer than it should, long enough that the imperfections would also become some sort of perfection; no, that never happened, and then he met Ladybug.

First impressions are the one that last right? Well, Adrien’t first impression of Ladybug was that whoever was beneath the mask was his counterpart, someone who’d in a way complete him, his soulmate. he was enchanted by such a possibility, finding love was never a priority in Adrien’s list, but, maybe, that could be just what was missing.  
His true impression of Ladybug was different though. Chat Noir was standing in a roof looking out for his partner and counterpart and soulmate. That was when from behind he heard a loud thu, followed by rude remarks about something he didn’t hear, he exalad the air he didn’t know he was holding, and turned around. The girl getting up before him had bleach blond hair, pale skin and would have looked exactly like one of the teen models he worked with, Monique, if not that in the place of Monique’s dark, almost black brown eyes, there were icy piercing eyes staring at him; her clothes seemed to have a greek aesthetic to them, a fabric akin to a toga draped over her fastened at the wait by a ribbon, but instead of the open skirt of a toga they were loose fitting pants, ending with closed golden sandals, all on a rusted red speckled with various sizes of black spots. And then, she hit him with her yoyo, on purpose or in accident he didn’t quite know, but they heard screams before he could ask.  
At some point in the battle they got separated, and as soon as Chat Noir saw Ladybug again, he could barely recognize her. Instead of a replica of Monique, he now saw a copy of Larissa. Instead of the bleached hair, was a vibrant orange red, tightly woven in a Dutch style braid, the flowing fabrics of the suit now replaced by viking-esque battle clothing, with what seemed like about 4 layers of brown leather topped with a shouldered vest with red, spotted animal fur on the edges, the before golden sandals, were now thick winter boots, also brown with red fur brims, all too reminiscent of that one viking themed photoshoot, if not only by in place of Larissa’s pale green eyes, there were still the piercing ice blue eyes.

===/===/===

Hawkmoth's face fluttered in front of the Tower Eiffel, giving his villainous speech, when Ladybug swooped in and purified all the butterflies, Chat Noir blinked in awe. He opened his eyes, and she changed again. No longer the red hair, but now it was dark brown, long and flowing into the air. Her battle clothing replaced by a flowing red dress, with a solid black stripe the the brim, that spiralled in spots all though her body to her neck, where it was connected with a golden necklace that ran to her shoulders, her yoyo now adorned in gold as well. His heart sunk in a beat, but then it rose and it didn't stop beating fast.

"Whoever it is beneath that mask, I love her." It was all he could mutter.

===/===/===

The next Time Chat Noir would see Ladybug, she'd no longer be wearing the dress, she now had a red spotted blazer with a black under blouse. Her hair still brown, but now curly and with blond highlights… just like Mariah. Her eyes were still blue, warmer. The next time she wore a long sleeved black over overcoat with soft flowing fabric, with the sky blue strands of hair mixed in with dark night black hair fixed into a high bun with a black, red spotted ribbon, like Lianne.Her eyes not amber brown like Lianne's, but still blue, still piercing, but warmer than last time. The next time, she still had the overcoat, but her hair was braided into two long low braids at the base of her neck, black hair still, but the edges fadded into lime green. Like Moira. Eyes still blue. Warmer.  
The cycle repeated, everyday a new Ladybug, her appearance different. Different hair, different clothes, but always the same blue eyes, but not really, for they got warmer, bluer, more welcoming every time.  
He started noting down each of her appearances in hope of finding what was constant, what was his lady's true appearance. He knew she had darker hair. She had something on her shoulders. Her eyes were blue. So blue.


End file.
